Fully evolved

Battle properties

Generation I

Generations II to V

Offensive

Defensive

Power

Types

Power

Types

2×

½×

½×

2×

0×

None

0×

None

Generation VI onwards

Offensive

Defensive

Power

Types

Power

Types

2×

½×

½×

2×

0×

0×

None

Characteristics

Defense

Defensively, Dragon types have powerful resistances to Electric, Fire, Grass, and Water; the types of the traditional starter Pokémon including Pikachu. However, they are weak to Ice-type, and indeed many fully-evolved Dragon-type Pokémon have secondary types of either Flying or Ground, resulting in a double weakness to it, and combined with the high Special Attack averages for Ice types this means they are generally taken down in one hit. They are also weak to themselves, although their high stat totals mean they can generally sustain more than one Dragon-type move before fainting. Their weakness to Fairy is checked by the scarcity of powerful Fairy-type moves, and as with Dragon they are generally able to take even a STAB Fairy-type attack without fainting.

Offense

The Dragon type is statistically the best type overall, as many of them are pseudo-legendary or Legendary Pokémon with above-600 base stat totals. Dragon-type Pokémon frequently have high AttackandSpecial Attack, as well as good Speed. Although Dragon-type moves are only super effective against Dragon-type Pokémon, the type itself has only one resistance (Steel) and one immunity (Fairy), meaning Dragon types typically make use of strong neutral damage with same-type attack bonus. Dragon-type Pokémon also have famously wide physical and special movepools, which combined with their high offensive stats does give them some options against Fairy types, Steel types, and Ice types.

Despite Dragon's numerous offensive advantages, however, Dragon-type moves are generally not well utilized by Pokémon that do not possess Dragon typing themselves. As addressed, Dragon-types rely on STAB neutral damage combined with their good offensive stats, but in the hands of a non-Dragon-type the moves lose STAB. This, combined with the fact that Dragon-type moves do neutral damage to nearly all types, means that the power of the moves is usually underwhelming.

Dragon-type Pokémon, on average, have the highest base stat total, HP, Attack, and Special Attack of all Pokémon and of fully evolved Pokémon. They also have the highest average Special Defense of all Pokémon.

Contest properties

Pokémon

As of Generation VII, there are 50 Dragon-type Pokémon or 6.2% of all Pokémon (counting those that are Dragon-type in at least one of their forms, including Mega Evolutions and Alola Forms), making it the third rarest type, tying with Fairy, only behind Ice and Ghost.

Exclusive Abilities

In the TCG

Introduced in the Dragon Vault set, previously many Pokémon in this set were listed as Colorless-types. Dragon-type Pokémon in the TCG are generally weak to Dragon and Fairy with no resistances. Dragon-type Pokémon can be strong against other Dragon-types, and there are no types that resist them.

Trivia

Generation V introduced the most Dragon-type Pokémon of any generation, with 10, and Generation II introduced the fewest Dragon-type Pokémon, with only one.

Generation IV introduced the most Dragon-type moves of any generation, with five, while Generation VI introduced the fewest, with zero.

In Generation I, there was no way to do super-effective Dragon-type damage, since the then-only Dragon-type attack, Dragon Rage, always deals 40 HP of damage.

Also, for the same reasons, there was no way to get STAB from a Dragon-type move in Generation I.

Currently, there are no Dragon-type Pokémon that evolve by a method other than leveling up.

More Pokémon gain the Dragon type through Mega Evolution than any other type, with three.

The Dragon type has been paired up with every other type at least once, except Bug.

The Dragon type is the only type for which a move was not introduced in Generation VI. This is also the only instance of any generation not introducing a move for a type after that type's introduction.